(14 July 2005 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The nominations for the 57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards for the period of 1 June, 2004 through 31 May, 2005, were announced today by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

ABC's Desperate Housewives (debuting tomorrow in India on Star World) and NBC's Will & Grace led all series with 15 nominations each.

HBO films The Life and Death of Peter Sellers and Warm Springs each had 16 bids to top all nominees.

The Academy's chairman of the Board and CEO Dick Askin and Jami Gertz and Michael Imperioli announced the nominations this morning.

The nominees for best drama series are Deadwood, Lost, Six Feet Under, 24 and The West Wing.

On the other hand, Arrested Development, Desperate Housewives, Everybody Loves Raymond, Scrubs and Will & Grace were nominated for the best comedy series.

Hank Azaria (Huff), Hugh Laurie (House), Ian McShane (Deadwood), James Spader (Boston Legal) and Kiefer Sutherland (24) are the contenders for best actor in a drama award. Leading the female pack in the category are Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under), Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Glenn Close (The Shield), Jennifer Garner (Alias) and Patricia Arquette (Medium).

The nominees for best actor in a comedy are Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Tony Shalhoub (Monk), Zach Braff (Scrubs) and Eric McCormack (Will & Grace). The nominees for best actress in a comedy are Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond), and Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle).

Elvis Presley bagged six nominations in the outstanding miniseries category - Elvis. However, Empire Falls received 10 nominations. Other contenders included The 4400 and The Lost Prince.

The Emmy awards presentation will be telecast in the US by the CBS Television Network on 18 September from the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium.

This year's Emmy telecast will be executive-produced by Ken Ehrlich, produced by Michael B. Seligman and Renato Basile, with Danette Herman serving as coordinating producer and executive in charge of talent and Bruce Gowers directing.

Additional awards may also be given for the four "juried areas" (no nominations) of Costumes for a Variety or Music Program, Voice-Over Performance, Individual Achievement in Animation and Interactive Television. The announcement of these awards, if any, will be released in August. Two additional awards may also be given for Engineering Development and the Governors Award. These awards (if any) will be announced later this month.

A total of 434 separate nominations in 88 categories and areas, compiled by the independent accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP, were distributed. HBO led the list with 93 nominations. Others are as follows: CBS (59), NBC (54), ABC (51), FOX (49), PBS (23), Showtime (17), A&E (10), FX (8), TNT (8), SCI FI (7), USA (6), Bravo (5), Comedy Central (5), Discovery Channel (5), Cartoon Network (4), The History Channel (4), Lifetime (3), Nickelodeon (3), UPN (3), WB (2), Animal Planet (2), BBC America (2), IFC (1), MTV (1), Disney Channel (1), TCM (1), ESPN (1), Hallmark (1), Commercials (5) (No network affiliation).

The complete list of Primetime Emmy nominations and other Academy news and information is available for download from the Academy's website, located at /www.emmys.tv/downloads.

The nominations were made by active Academy members who voted for programs and other peer categories of their expertise.